COTABATO CITY – The Commission on Human Rights said it would conduct a separate probe on the clashes between police commandos and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which signed a peace deal with Manila last year.
The bloody fighting left 44 Special Action Force commandos and 18 MILF members dead in Maguindanao’s Mamasapano town on January 25. Etta Rosales, who heads the Commission on Human Rights, said they wanted to investigate the brutal killings of the police commandos.
On Saturday, patriot hackers defaced more than a dozen government websites in protest to President Aquino’s failure to meet returned bodies of SAF commandos killed in a secretive operation that targeted a top Malaysian terrorist leader Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, in Tukanalipao village.
The SAF operation was believed guided by US troops who reportedly provided vital intelligence to the elite police unit. The US military was reported to have deployed a drone that allowed American Special Forces to monitor in real time the situation on the ground and allegedly provided Filipino commandos with information about the hideout of Zulkifli, leader of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia or the Malaysian Mujahideen Movement allied with Jemaah Islamiyah.
It was unknown if Aquino was aware of the US military role in the hunt for Zulkifli, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and Washington offered $5 million bounty for his capture – dead or alive. US troops were also spotted in Maguindanao’s evacuating wounded SAF commandos from Mamasapano town. No security officials have come up in the open to talk about the role of US military in the clandestine operation.
The SAF commandos were returning back to their unit after killing Zulkifli and cutting off one of his fingers for DNA analysis when they encountered MILF members who thought they were being attacked. The MILF said 18 of its members were killed and over a dozen wounded in the fighting that government and the former rebel group now called a “mis-encounter.”
The hackers have left a message on defaced websites and warned Aquino that they are watching him. The group also offered its sympathy to the families of the slain commandos. The hackers strongly criticized Aquino for not being present when the caskets of the commandos arrived at a military air base in Manila. Aquino was in Laguna province attending the opening of a car manufacturing plant. He also arrived late at the necrological service for the perished commandos at the Villamor Air Base.
“It has come to our attention that 44 elite cops died in a ‘misencounter’ with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on (January 25) Sunday.”
“Sa pamilya ng mga nasawi, ang aming pakikiramay, to President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino: Brave men have died fighting for your reign. And now that they need “just recognition for their deeds” you were not there to honor them. Hindi pa sapat na pambabastos ninyo by not attending the rites at Villamor Air Base, late ka pa ngayon sa necrological service! RESPETO AT HUSTISYA ang isinisigaw ng taong-bayan sa mga binitiwan mong pananalita bilang Pangulo ng Pilipinas! We are watching you Mr. President. EXPECT US,” the hackers said in a message they left on defaced websites.
It was unknown if the hackers belong or ally of the collective group called Anonymous which have over time taken down countless Philippine government websites.
Human rights group Suara Bangsamoro also reported that 7 people were allegedly killed and three others wounded by police forces in separate attacks in Mamasapano town. It said among those killed was a five-year old girl who was fatally shot when SAF commandos opened fire on a house in Tukanalipao village.
It said the body of a farmer, Badrudin Langalan, was also recovered by civilians in the village. His body was riddled with bullets and both eyes had been gouged out and hands tied behind his back, his wife Sarah told Suara Bangsamoro which investigated the killings.
But other sources said the farmer was arrested by the police on suspicion he was a spy for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and that he had been killed in the crossfire when fighting erupted between commandos and MILF members.
The group said at least 5 civilians also died when commandos allegedly opened fire at a mosque in Sitio Inubog. The victims were mistaken as members of the Jemaah Islamiyah. Three others were injured in the shooting. Suara Bangsamoro said it documented more than 1,500 villagers who forcibly fled the area due to the fighting.
The report could not be independently confirmed, but Kilab Multimedia also released a photo showing the body of Langalan. Police have not issue any statement about the allegations. It was not immediately known if CHR would also probe the allegations of Suara Bangsamoro. (Mindanao Examiner)
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